Stovetop Pizza in 20 Minutes

Someone on the McDougall Friends Facebook group found this video on how to make a pizza on your stove in 20 minutes from the Chef's Toolbox Facebook site:

The best way to get a Pizza in 20 minutes! Faster than the delivery driver and absolutely delicious!
Posted by The Chefs Toolbox on Friday, May 15, 2015

And if you're like me and don't happen to have self-rising flour around, add 3/4 teaspoon baking powder to the flour.

I can see making this for a quick lunch, substituting any of the many nooch-based cheeses for the shredded dairy one.

I'll report back when I try this for myself.

Isa's Been Busy

Is there anyone who reads this blog who doesn't know Isa Chandra Moskowitz, author of a slew of vegan cookbooks and owner of the Post Punk Kitchen web site and blog?

Her latest book, Isa Does It, was recently released. I haven't bought it yet and may not get it at all, even though I own all her other books except Vegan Pie in the Sky. I skipped that one because I could never make a decent pie crust when eating SAD, and with all added fats now out of the picture, I doubt I could make a decent fat-free vegan crust, too. Besides, with the triglycerides as high as they are, I don't dare eat anything sugary, even if they are fruity! I didn't buy the new one and may not buy anyone else's cookbooks in the future because I'm really trying to simplify our meals. But more of that in a future post.

Back to Isa.

I just discovered that she did a series of videos and a free Kindle ebook titled  Breville presents Make It Vegan: Recipes from the Yiddish-speaking, Nebraska-living, post-punk vegan, Isa Chandra Moskowitz.

Yes, FREE!!

All 10 recipes and videos are included in the ebook, so it does take a while to download and install to your Kindle, so have patience.

If you don't have a Kindle and don't want to bother putting the Kindle app on your computer, pad or phone, you can still see all the videos here on YouTube.

As with all of Isa's other recipes and books, not everything will be McDougall-safe as-is and may require some tweaking to make them compliant. But I sure do love looking at these foods and dreaming of the day I might be able to indulge in them all once again.

Enjoy!

Blueberry Dumpster Fire Cobbler

This is one of those rare times I wish I still had a silicone cake pan.

I made this recipe from the Engine 2 web site, Blueberry Dumpster Fire Cobbler:

Blueberry Dumpster Fire Cobbler
Preheat over to 350 degrees.
Ingredients:
2/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1½ teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon vanilla
2/3 cup milk substitute
3 tablespoons agave nectar or maple syrup
2 cups blueberries
Instructions:
Combine flour and baking powder in a small bowl.
Combine vanilla, milk substitute, and agave nectar or maple syrup in a measuring cup.
Add contents of measuring cup to dry ingredients and mix until smooth. The batter will be runny.
Pour the batter into a non-stick 8-inch square pan. Sprinkle the blueberries over the batter. Bake for 45 minutes or until browned.

If you look at it from this view, it looks pretty good:

but on the opposite side of the plate:

The whole soggy center of the cake was so heavy with blueberries that as it cooled it sort of fused itself to the center of my tried-and-true non-stick cake pan and when I went to turn it out onto the platter, the entire center of the cake and this bit on the side chose to remain in the cake pan. I had to grab a silicone spatula and scoop it out, plopping it back into the center of the cake, smoothe it out a bit, but by then that side piece was stuck fast to the blueberry goo and wasn't going to move again.

Once it sat a while it solidified and was very easy to cut into quarters and my husband even ate his without a fork and not one blueberry dropped.

It was a very tasty cake, and while I wouldn't serve it to guests, I would certainly make it for my husband again. It all came together in less than 5 minutes. The only change I might make next time is to use fresh blueberries instead of the frozen ones. It would probably have been less soggy. But these organic frozen blueberries I have are such cute tiny ones, about a third to half the size of fresh supermarket blueberries and much tastier, which is why I chose them. Oh, well.

Mighty Muffin Update

The papers came off!

What we didn't eat the first day got wrapped in cellophane and left on the kitchen table. The next morning when my husband went to eat one for breakfast he showed me that the paper came right off. The muffin was a bit soggy and so was the paper, but on the plate was the paper and only the paper with not one crumb of muffin stuck to it. He immediately took the papers off the remaining 3 muffins and rewrapped them.

It was a busy day and neither of us felt like a snack that evening and forgot about the muffins until the next morning.

My husband took the wrap off the plate and Whoa! We should have refrigerated these things, because the fruit in the muffins fermented and it smelled like wine-infused muffins under that wrap! He spent a good 3 minutes debating whether or not to still eat them before tossing them out.

So now two things to remember the next time I make them:

Don't use cupcake papers

Refrigerate or freeze them at the end of the day they're made

Engine 2 Semi-Disaster - Mighty Muffins

For many years when I made muffins I had to forgo the use of those cupcake liners, because fat-free baking and paper don't get along. I usually sprayed my muffin pan or, for a short while, used those single-sized silicone cups.

Well, Dr. McDougall, among others in the field, say NO OILS, not even to spray the baking pan (although Mary McDougall does say to do it in some of her earlier recipes), and those silicone cups  (no matter what brand I used or how well they were scrubbed) would turn tacky to the touch after a few months, so what's a person to do? Non-stick pans are a thought, but even they say to spray/oil them in the directions that come with them, and besides, they still stick.

I usually go against the gurus and spray my non-stick muffin pan and use parchment paper for other baking purposes and it's worked out well all these decades. There's no McDougall Police coming around to arrest me.

The recipe for Mighty Muffins in the Engine 2 book said to pour the batter into sprayed muffin tins. Rip already uses some ingredients his father, the doctor, says to avoid so I just chuckled when I read this and turned the page, since I never had 3 cups of oat bran or 6 ripe bananas sitting around. Then the recipe appeared on the Engine 2 web site and the directions were changed - it now says to pour into lined muffin tins. I just got a fresh delivery from Amazon of a case of Bob's Red Mill oat bran, and even though it's the end of the week still had the required 6 bananas nice and ripe sitting in the kitchen, so I could finally make them! I looked the recipe over again to double check needed equipment and ingredients. Hmm, it does say to use the paper liner cups, so I guess this isn't one of those recipes where, under the cover of darkness in the oven, some alchemy happens that causes the dough and cupcake paper to merge molecules and become one, unseparable forever, even after a nuclear holocaust.

A word of caution - it still is.

No matter how hard we tried, even with my husband chewing the paper, he couldn't get the outer layer of the muffin off of it. 

This morning I went and double-checked the recipe on-line and sure enough, the muffins in the photo do NOT have cupcake papers on them. I've been shennaniganed! 

So people, if you want to be able to eat ALL of these otherwise delicious muffins, PLEASE either spray your pan or use those silicone muffin cups, if you still have them laying around and they aren't tacky.

Here's a photo of the batter freshly poured into the muffin pan with papers. The recipe said it makes 6 large sized muffins, and even with these filled almost to the top of the papers I still had enough dough left over for a seventh, so I put a jumbo sized paper liner into a little Pyrex custard cup and poured it into there.

A word about the liners. I looked for months around my area and any mall I went to looking for the size that would fit my large muffin tins, and nobody had them. I finally found some on Amazon at this link. Amazon has others that had ridiculous prices, like $45 for 40 papers, and people were actually buying them at that price because they, too, were desperate and couldn't find them where they lived. So they're plain white papers, not those cute ones with all sorts of graphics, like butterflies or Stars and Bars or fractals, but they are what is needed if I ever want to make cupcakes using that jumbo muffin pan.

And the finished product. As you can see, these didn't rise at all.

Photo taken by the Kid using the iPod he got for Christmas

The first thing you notice is the weight of these things. Each muffin is heavy! One of these bad boys will probably fill you for 6 to 8 hours for a hearty breakfast or snack. My husband and I each ate half of one (Well, what was left of one after taking the paper off) and knew there was no way either of us big eaters could ever finish a whole one by ourselves. The muffin top was a bit crusty and hard, but not inedible. They look nothing like the photo on the recipe's web page, as you can see. My baking powder is fresh, so I don't know if it's the heaviness of the fruit or what that makes them so different in appearance. 

But all kidding and complaints aside, they do taste good. This time I made them with frozen blueberries, skipped the walnuts because my husband is allergic to them and used 2 tablespoons of a combination of flax seed and slivered almonds instead. I used honey for the sweetener but next time I may use plain old sugar.

And you can bet your bippy that next time I make these, I'm not using paper liners but will spray my jumbo muffin pan!

VeganMoFo day 16 - Quickbread by Jan Tz

I've written about Jan's quickbreads a number of times. They're not sweet, fancy or even pretty looking, but they do fulfill the dictionary definition of a cake, and I make one up for each of our birthdays. Here's the one I made for my own birthday this month - Raspberry Cocoa Quickbread.

We added a few candles, my guys sang the birthday song to me with the kiddie lyrics (the one with ". . .you belong in a zoo" ), and a good time was had by all.

Thanks again, Jan Tz, wherever you are, for a memorable day with a memorable recipe.

  

Raspberry Cocoa Quick Bread

Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray an 8 x 8" square or 8" round cake pan with non-stick spray.

Combine the dry ingredients and mix well:
2 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup cocoa
1 tsp. salt
1 Tbs. baking powder
3/4 tsp. baking soda

Combine liquid ingredients separately:
1 and 1/4 cups hot water (tap water hot, not boiling)
1 Tbs. + 1 tsp. white vinegar
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Have ready:
1 (10 ounce) jar Polaner All-Fruit, in Raspberry flavor

When the oven reaches temp., add the liquid ingredients all at once to the dry ingredients. Mix quickly with a spoon, and do not over-mix. Put half the batter into the pan; spread evenly. Spoon about 3/4 of the jar of Polaner Raspberry fruit spread onto the batter. Put it on evenly, but don't try to spread it around. Put the rest of the batter on top of the fruit and spread gently and evenly to cover. Bake 25 minutes -- toothpick test for doneness. Leave the bread in the pan and put the pan on a rack to cool. Remove the last 1/4 jar of fruit spread, put in a bowl, and microwave 30 seconds or so to melt. Pour this melted spread over the warm bread to glaze. Let the bread cool completely before cutting. 

Recipe by Jan Tzinski

Note from Jan: A couple of changes that apply to all the recipes:

(1)Bake at 350 F.

(2)liquid can be lukewarm soymilk, ricemilk, juice, or water

(3)Just add the vinegar to the liquid; no need to "sour" anything. 

VeganMoFo Day 4 - SNAP Black Bean Chili

Today's SNAP meal isn't one of Jeff's but one of Letha's MWLP recipes.

For over a year, Letha posted frequently on the McDougall forums and even though her weight loss was slow ("Turtle Power" was her motto and a turtle was her avatar) she stuck with it, not only developing her own versions of McDougall recipes to post on her MWLP blog but starting up her own forum, McDougall Talk, before handing it off to another to run.

Then she vanished without a trace. No word of warning, no complaints about the McDougall program that may have hinted she was thinking of leaving, just there one day and gone the next.

Luckily she left up her blog with all the fantastic photos of the recipes she made. I'm making one of those recipes today, my own variations on her variation of Jeff's SNAP recipes.

SNAP Black Bean Chili 9000

Letha based this on Jeff's basic SNAP 5-ingredient formula of tomatoes, beans, vegetable, starch and spices. For this chili she used:


1 can of Black Beans, drained
1 Can diced Tomatoes
1 lb bag of frozen Bird's Eye brand peppers and onions
1 lb bag of frozen Bird's Eye brand corn, broccoli, & peppers
2 cups water
2 Tablespoons Penzy’s Chili 9000 seasoning
2 cups of Minute Brown Rice

Letha liked her chili hot/spicy but I don't, so instead of using the 9000 chili powder I'm using a milder, salt-free one from Penzy's. I'm also using a 28 ounce box of Pomi chopped tomatoes instead of a 15 ounce can of diced. I'll also toss in a bit of greens, one of Jeff's additions that doesn't count in his basic 5-ingredients.

When I make it, it looks very much like what Letha shows on her blog page, so I won't bother with any photos.



Because my husband is a big eater, I'll also make a cornbread to go with this meal, the same one I used in this VeganMoFo blog post from 2 years ago.

Mom's Banana Bread

This is a recipe that originally came from Dr. McDougall's mother that his wife Mary played around with to McDougallize it. It's my first time using this recipe, but it does smell great! My son, who has a problem smelling things thanks to years using a nebulizer with a face mask for his asthma meds when he was small, smelled it as soon as he walked out of his room. He said it smells so great he may even try a slice, even though it's made with white whole wheat flour. Now THAT is high praise!

                   
* Exported from MasterCook *

                            Mom's Banana Bread

Recipe By     :Mary McDougall
Serving Size  : 8     Preparation Time :0:00
Categories    : Cakes                           Desserts
                Low Fat                         McDougall
                Vegan

  Amount  Measure       Ingredient -- Preparation Method
--------  ------------  --------------------------------
  2 1/4           cups  whole wheat flour
  1           teaspoon  baking soda
  1           teaspoon  baking powder
  12            ounces  apple juice, frozen concentrate -- un-diluted
  4                     bananas -- ripe
  3          teaspoons  EnerG Egg Replacer -- mixed in
  6        tablespoons  water

Mix egg replacer in water and let sit a minute or 2.

Mix all the dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl.

Mash the bananas in another large bowl, then add in the defrosted apple juice concentrate and egg replacer mixture.

Combine the wet and dry ingredients and beat together with a whisk or electric mixer.

Pour into a lightly greased or non-stick loaf pan.

Bake at 350ºF for 60 minutes.

Source:
  "Doctor McDougall's Health-Enhancing Recipe Book"
Copyright:
  "1992"
Yield:
  "1 loaf"
                                    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Per Serving: 247 Calories; 1g Fat (3.7% calories from fat); 5g Protein; 58g Carbohydrate; 6g Dietary Fiber; 0mg Cholesterol; 234mg Sodium.  Exchanges: 1 1/2 Grain(Starch); 2 Fruit; 0 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.

NOTES : page 126

Nutr. Assoc. : 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

SNAP Meal - Mexican Fiesta

It's almost a year since Jeff Novick released his Fast Food DVD and I wrote a post about it. For a while I was making at least one of his SNAP meals each week. Then we started to get sick of them, because each one made SO much we would be eating it for days on end. We're the type of people who get bored with our food very fast, but unlike what Dr. McDougall hypothosizes (Get bored, eat less), we tend to swing in the opposite direction and seek out other, more flavorful, usually higher calorie, foods. The times I would go off the McDougall program were usually after a long stretch of being 100% compliant.


So I stopped making so many SNAP meals. Now, when I do make one, it's much more enjoyable and we don't mind the leftovers so much. Some of these leftovers even go great mixed in with pasta. Like this Mexican Fiesta one.


The official recipe, as posted on Jeff's Facebook Photos section:


Mexican Fiesta


2 28 oz Can Whole Tomatoes (no salt added)
2 lbs Frozen Mixed Peppers and Onions (Birds Eye)
.5 lb Frozen Corn
1 can Eden Foods Pinto Beans
1 Can Eden Foods Black Beans
Spices (I used garlic, cumin, chili powder and cayenne)


Put all in a pot, bring to boil, simmer 10 minutes.


Serve over Cooked Long Grain Brown Rice


Top with fresh Cilantro


~ ~ ~ ~ ~
This is one meal I pretty much stick to the recommended brands, at least when it comes to the peppers. Name brand veggies cost almost twice as much as store-brand in many cases, and it's certainly true for this pepper/onion mix, but I tried making it with a bag of sliced peppers and a bag of diced onions and it somehow didn't seem right, like there was too much of a pepper taste. I tried a few cups of fresh sliced peppers and onions, and got a different texture. Still, if finances are tight or the store doesn't have the Bird's Eye, store brand it is and I just add a bit more onions or spices.


For the beans I use either store brand or Goya, depending on what's in my pantry that I picked up on sale. I just rinse them well and dump them in.


I always have corn in the freezer, but I'm preparing for another winter like last, and plan on having a good supply of canned veggies on my newly acquired shelving unit, and if I make this in February, with 5 feet of snow outside my apartment, I'll use canned corn and like it.




For the spices, I had found a recipe for a fajita mix that tastes a lot like the Old El Paso one I like.







Here's the recipe as I copied it:


Fajita Seasoning Mix
Linda Larsen
Make your own fajita seasoning mix using this easy recipe. If you are simply going to rub the mixture on steak, chicken, pork, or seafood before grilling it, omit the cornstarch.
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

    3 Tbsp. cornstarch
    2 Tbsp. chili powder
    1 Tbsp. salt
    1 Tbsp. paprika
    1 Tbsp. sugar
    2-1/2 tsp. crushed chicken bouillon cube
    1-1/2 tsp. onion powder
    1/2 tsp. garlic powder
    1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
    1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
    1/2 tsp. cumin

Preparation:
Combine all of the ingredients in a small bowl. Pour into small glass or plastic container, seal tightly and store in a cool, dry place. Makes the equivalent of 3 packets of commercial or purchased Fajita Seasoning Mix

~ ~ ~ ~
I made up a whole jar-full of this stuff and leave out the salt and it still tastes fine. Just before I'm ready to serve I'll add a tablespoon and taste, and keep adding and tasting until it comes out just right.


To go along with this meal I might make the cornbread I mentioned yesterday, Jan Tz's sweet corn bread. Unless I break down and make the cornbread my husband wants me to make, a very UN-McDougall one - the cornbread recipe by Isa and posted on-line at the PPK web site.   This has got to be the MOST delicious cornbread in the world. It's not too sweet, not too heavy or gritty (Unless you use a larger grit cornmeal, that is) and it makes so much I usually divide it in half and serve half at one meal (and still have leftovers for snacks) and freeze the other on a piece of cardboard covered in plastic wrap. I tried McDougalling this recipe by using substitutes for the oil, like Wonderslim, Lighter Bake, or applesauce, but it changes the taste and texture too much. Perhaps if I let my husband have the rest of yesterday's sally cake I can afford to eat a small piece of this cornbread and not feel too guilty. Besides, it also goes with tomorrow's meal so I'll only have to bake once.

Jan Tz - McDougall Hero

Dr. McDougall calls them Star McDougallers, but to me, Jan Tz is more of an everyday hero than a star. Stars burn bright and eventually fade, but Jan keeps on shining, even when her light dimmed a bit a few years ago and she regained some of her lost weight.

It was Jan's posts on the old McDougall forums on VegSource that showed me eating healthy doesn't have to involve complex recipes with 20 ingredients and take hours to cook. Her 3-ingredient recipes were lifesavers at a time things were super hectic in this household, caring for a m-i-l with Alzheimer's & leukemia, homeschooling a kid through high school years, moving 1200 miles from home, then back again less than a year later, and now, caring for a different relative with Alzheimer's (m-i-l's sister).

Her quickbreads are legendary for saving many a party in McDougallers' households.

Jan would disappear from the forums from time to time, but then she would come back with a vengeance. One year she gave up posting to Internet forums for Lent, but another year she took that sacred time to recommit herself to the McDougall program.

Like many of us, Jan has had her ups and downs when it comes to weight loss, but she also knows that the best, healthiest way to regain her health and lose those pounds again is with the McDougall program. It's her persistence (and her recipes) that keep people like ME doing the same.

Some of my favorite Jan Tz meals follow. I usually copy/paste the messages from the forums to my AZZ Cardfile program so I retain all the notes and directions the original author wrote. That's the case with all of these. The McDougall forum on VegSource no longer exists so the links in these recipes probably won't work.

Our all-time favorite quick dinner:

From: Jan Tz 

Subject: Three Ingredient Recipe: Pioneer Baked Beans
Date: October 14, 2003 at 3:57 pm PST

PIONEER BAKED BEANS

Peeled and cored apple, cut into big chunks
Onion, sliced thinly and separated into rings
Vegetarian Baked Beans

Combine all ingredients in whatever quantities you need, put into a baking dish, and bake uncovered for 30 minutes at 350F.

I remember reading about "Apples 'n' Onions" in one of the "Little House on the Prairie" books some years back. Baked beans were popular then, too. They seem to go well together.

http://www.vegsource.com/talk/mcdougall/messages/9916379.html

A Holiday staple:

From: Jan Tz 

Subject: Three Ingredient Recipe: Cranberry-Sauced Chickpeas
Date: October 15, 2003 at 4:12 pm PST

CRANBERRY-SAUCED CHICKPEAS

2 cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 can whole-berry cranberry sauce
dash of powdered cloves

Preheat oven to 300 F. Put the chickpeas in a casserole dish. Put the cranberry sauce on top. Sprinkle lightly with cloves. Bake uncovered for about 30 min.

http://www.vegsource.com/talk/mcdougall/messages/9916386.html

A favorite cold-weather meal:

From: Jan Tz 

Subject: New 3-Ingredient Recipe for You
Date: December 28, 2002 at 3:28 pm PST

This is a variation of the Barley-Mushroom Bake that many of you requested. It has only 3 ingredients (not counting water and pan spray), and is very meaty and satisfying.

BARLEY-MUSHROOM BAKE

3/4 cup quick barley
1 (8 oz.) box fresh mushrooms, whole, cleaned
1 envelope Lipton Recipe Secrets, any fat-free flavor (check the boxes)

Put all the ingredients in a casserole dish. Stir in 2 cups boiling water. Stir to mix. Cover and bake at 325 F. for 45 min. Uncover and bake another 15 min. Stir lightly before serving.

http://www.vegsource.com/talk/mcdougall/messages/9915541.html

My go-to cornbread recipe, savory:

From: Jan Tz 

Subject: Re: Cornbread.........
Date: February 16, 2005 at 11:34 am PST

In Reply to: Cornbread......... posted by Sunny on February 16, 2005 at 7:52 am:

I think they posted mine. Here it is...

Ingredients:
1 cup flour (many people here use whole wheat pastry flour)
1 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup sugar
1 Tbs. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 Tbs. baking powder
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1 and 1/4 cups water
1 Tbs. + 1 tsp. vinegar

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease/spray an 8"x8" cake pan. Mix the dry ingredients together. Mix the wet ingredients together in a separate bowl. When the oven reaches temp., stir the wet into the dry. Mix quickly and don't overmix. Pour into prepared pan. Bake about 30 minutes -- toothpick test for doneness. Let stand in pan 10 minutes. Remove from pan and cool completely on a rack.

My go-to cornbread recipe, sweet:

From: Jan Tz 

Subject: Sweet Cornbread
Date: August 16, 2003 at 5:28 am PST

In Reply to: JanTz.....Could you please give me ....... posted by Bambi on August 16, 2003 at 4:40 am:

I think what I posted was my version of Chi Chi's Sweet Corn Cake mix. Here is the recipe:

1 cup yellow cornmeal
2 Tbs. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 Tbs. baking powder
1 small can chopped green chiles
1/4 cup water
1 can (15 oz) cream-style corn

Pre-heat oven to 350 F. Grease or spray a 9 x 5 loaf pan.
Mix the dry ingredients together first, then stir in the rest. Mix quickly and do not overmix. Pour into the loaf pan. Bake uncovered for 40-45 min. or until liquid has been absorbed.


One of my favorite quickbreads:

From: Jan Tz 

Subject: Gingerbread
Date: March 17, 2001 at 8:36 pm PST

GINGERBREAD

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease or spray an 8" x 8" cake pan.

Combine the liquid ingredients:
1 and 1/4 cups hot soymilk, ricemilk, or water
1 Tbs. + 1 tsp. white vinegar
1/4 cup molasses

In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
1 Tbs. baking powder
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ginger
1 tsp. cinnamon

When the oven reaches temp, pour the liquid into the dry ingredients. Mix quickly and do not over-mix. Pour into prepared pan. Bake about 25 min.--toothpick test for doneness. Remove from oven and let stand in pan for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and wrap in a clean dry kitchen towel until completely cooled. May dust with powdered sugar or eat with applesauce.

http://www.vegsource.com/mcdrecipes/messages/13143.html

And the quickbread I'm making tonight, using canned apples (NOT apple pie filling)

From: Jan Tz 

Subject: Recipe: "SallyBread": A New Quick Bread
Date: April 14, 2001 at 6:16 am PST

Look! Up in the sky! Is it a bread? Is it a pie? No...it's...
SALLYBREAD!

Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray or grease a 9" x 13" baking pan.

Combine the liquid ingredients together:
1 and 1/4 cups HOT soymilk, ricemilk, or water
1 Tbs. + 1 tsp. white vinegar.

Combine the dry ingredients together:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 Tbs. baking powder
3/4 tsp. baking soda

When the oven reaches temp, stir the liquid ingredients into the dry. Mix quickly, and do not over-mix. Pour into prepared pan and spread it around evenly to cover bottom of pan.

Now pour the contents of:
1 (21 ounce) can of fruit pie filling

on top of the batter in the pan. Spread it around to mostly cover. Bake about 20 to 25 minutes -- toothpick test for doneness. Remove from oven and let cool in the pan. Serve warm or cover and refrigerate.

I used blueberry pie filling for my test batch, but you can use any fruit filling you like. Happy Easter, everyone!

http://www.vegsource.com/mcdrecipes/messages/13275.html

And tonight's dinner:

ACK! I lost the original post! It was another of her simple 3-ingredient recipes but it's not in my Cardfile or anywhere on this computer! I've been making it so long I don't even look at the recipe any more so it's probably still on the old, non-working, computer.

It's another super simple recipe she called Spudz-Onion Casserole. Take a few potatoes and slice them thin. Take a big onion or 2 and also slice it thin. Take a casserole dish and alternate layers - onions, taters, onions, taters, etc. - until you run out of both. This is one meal I make that I'm so glad I spent the money to buy a fancy mandoline for slicing. You can sprinkle each layer of spuds with any spice combo you want, or just plain old salt and pepper. 

If you want to healthy this up a bit you can add some greens, to keep Jeff Novick happy. I have a bag of spinach in the freezer and will use some of that.

Cover and bake, the usual 350ºF for 30 - 45 minutes or until the potatoes are soft. If you want the top layer crunchy, uncover for the last 15 minutes or so.

Jan, if you're reading this, I want to thank you for saving my butt so many times over these years. I hope you continue to post on the McDougall forums for many years to come.

VeganMoFo Day 9 part 2 - Need Sweets, STAT!

I haven't had one sweet thing, with the exception of fresh fruit, for a month tomorrow, and with all the frustrating events of the past week or so I NEED to eat something gooey. All I have in the house is more fresh fruit, not even one teensy chocolate chip, so I whipped out my copy of Vegan With A Vengeance and put together an apple/pear cobbler.



I didn't have enough fruit to fill the called for 9x13" pan so used one of my smaller Corningware casserole dishes. Instead of oil I used Wonderslim fat replacer (it's been discontinued but my remaining jar is still unexpired) instead of oil in the cobbler "crumb" part. I know I should have reduced the amount of topping because I used a dish half the size, but who's going to complain? Certainly not my husband or myself! :)

If you click on the name of the book above it'll take you to the Amazon page where you can click the "Look inside the book" feature, do a search for "cobbler" and get the recipe, if you don't already own VwaV. And if you don't own it, why not? That book revolutionized my vegan cooking! As long as you're on Amazon looking in the book, click to buy it. Even if you're a McDougaller you can easily change most of the recipes around to make them McD-legal.

It's a good thing my husband doesn't want me to "strain" myself doing the dinner dishes (even though I wash dishes and do other housework all day long) - this Corningware is gonna be a bitch to clean because I forgot to spray it with a non-stick spray first. Oops.

VenanMoFo Day 6 = Cookies

That Isa is such a tease! Her (and Terry's) cookie book won't be out for another month, and here she is blogging all about cookies! ARGH!

Not that I would get that much use out of it when I do buy it. I doubt too many (if any) recipes will be McDougall-legal, but I'll probably make a few batches of those delicious baked globules of sugary goo for my family. My husband is the original Cookie Monster. LOL

That doesn't mean there are no cookies suitable on the McDougall food plan out there. Here are some that are officially allowed from early McDougall cookbooks:


* Exported from MasterCook *

Banana Raisin Cookies

Recipe By :Janice Morikawa
Serving Size : 16 Preparation Time :0:25
Categories : Cookies McDougall Acceptable

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
2 banana -- ripe, mashed
1 1/4 cups rolled oats
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup raisins, seedless
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup apple juice -- or water

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

2. Combine all the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add the remaining
ingredients and mix well. Batter will be stiff.

3. Drop by teaspoons onto a non-stick cookie sheet (or a sheet lined with
parchment paper) and flatten slightly.

4. Bake at 375 F for 15 minutes.

5. Store in an air-tight container


Source:
"McDougall Health Supporting Cookbook, Vol. 2"
Copyright:
"1986"
T(cooking):
"0:15"

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Per Serving: 82 Calories; 1g Fat (6.7% calories
from fat); 2g Protein; 18g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 0mg
Cholesterol; 56mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1/2 Grain(Starch); 1/2 Fruit; 0 Fat;
0 Other Carbohydrates.


Nutr. Assoc. : 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0


* Exported from MasterCook *

Peanut Butter Cookies

Recipe By :Elaine French
Serving Size : 48 Preparation Time :0:20
Categories : Cookies McDougall Acceptable


Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
3 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup soy flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup applesauce, unsweetened
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup honey
3/4 cup peanut butter -- natural style

1. In a medium size bowl, mix flours, baking powder, and soda.

2. In a large bowl, mix applesauce, water, honey, and peanut butter until
smooth.

3. Add flour mixture to peanut butter mixture and mix well.

4. Drop by tablespoons onto cookie sheet. Flatten with a fork dipped in
flour.

5. Bake at 300 degrees F for 15 minutes.

Source:
"McDougall Health Supporting Cookbook, Vol. 2"
Copyright:
"1986"
T(cooking):
"0:15"

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Per Serving: 70 Calories; 2g Fat (28.3% calories
from fat); 2g Protein; 11g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 0mg
Cholesterol; 43mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1/2 Grain(Starch); 0 Lean Meat; 0
Fruit; 1/2 Fat; 1/2 Other Carbohydrates.


Nutr. Assoc. : 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

and one that hasn't appeared in any McDougall cookbook but are just as safe:


* Exported from MasterCook *

Fat-Free Oatmeal Cookies

Recipe By :Susan Voisin
Serving Size : 12 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : Cookies Snacks
Vegan

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
1 cup oatmeal -- quick oats
1/2 cup white flour
1/2 cup Whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon Baking soda
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla
1/2 cup Brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup Raisins
1/2 cup applesauce, unsweetened
2 teaspoons EnerG Egg Replacer
2 tablespoons Water

Preheat the oven to 375.

Mix the dry ingredients and the raisins. Mix the egg replacer with the
water. Add it and the apple sauce to the dry ingredients. Drop onto a
non-stick cookie sheet (lightly sprayed with oil, if necessary). Bake
for 12-15 minutes.

Source:
"http://veganconnection.com/recipes/desserts.html#Oatm"

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Per Serving: 118 Calories; 1g Fat (4.4% calories
from fat); 2g Protein; 27g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 0mg
Cholesterol; 146mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1 Grain(Starch); 0 Fruit; 0 Fat;
1/2 Other Carbohydrates.

NOTES : Yield: 12 cookies
Nutr. Assoc. : 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0


Hmmm, today is kind of filled up already, but tomorrow after rehab I have no plans, and it's gonna be a damp, rainy day, so a batch of cookies just may do the trick. Thanks for the suggestion, Isa. I'm no longer mad at you. :)

VeganMoFo 2009 Day 5 - Fall Foods

We took the air conditioners out of the windows over the weekend and right now I'm sitting here enjoying a beautiful breeze that's causing all my wind chimes to tinkle so loudly my son hears them in his room on the other side of the apartment. Fall is HERE!

And Fall weather deserves Fall foods, so today for dinner I'm making Butternut Squash Soup from Vegan With A Vengeance, Pumpkin Baked Ziti with Caramelized Onions and Sage Crust Topping from Veganomicon, and we'll top it off with Pumpkin Muffins by Mary McDougall from the McDougall Made Irresistable DVD for dessert while watching tv tonight. Heroes! Castle! How I Met Your Mother! Big Bang! Thank goodness for VCR's! I'm still trying to catch up with all the shows I taped last week!

Some of the recipe pages have a photo so I won't repeat them here.

VeganMoFo 2009 Here! Nothing to Say

Sorry, but it caught me on the day I have to make my first cardiologist visit and I'm a nervous wreck about that, so for dinner I planned just spaghetti for my menfolk and leftover rice and veggies for myself.

Tell you what, if I get a good report (And I see no reason why I shouldn't except that my nerves are driving my blood pressure up) I'll make this McDougall-legal quickbread from Jan Tz, in honor of October.

PUMPKIN SPICE QUICK BREAD

Pre-heat oven to 350 F.
Grease an 8" x 8" square cake pan.

Combine the dry ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour (I use a combination white whole wheat and AP)
1/4 cup sugar
1 Tbs. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. baking soda

In a separate bowl, mix the liquid ingredients thoroughly:
3/4 cup hot water, soymilk, or ricemilk
1 Tbs. + 1 tsp. white vinegar
1 cup canned pumpkin pie filling (see below)

When the oven reaches temp., add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients. Mix quickly and do not over-mix.

Dump into prepared pan.

Bake about 30 minutes -- toothpick test for doneness.

Remove from oven and let sit in pan 10 minutes.

Remove from pan and cool completely on rack.

Slice when completely cooled.

Variation: If you use pumpkin pie filling, note that it contains sugar already; you may want to reduce or eliminate the added sugar in this recipe, according to taste. If you want to use plain canned pumpkin, then use the sugar, and add 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice or 1/2 tsp. cinnamon and 1/4 tsp. nutmeg, or according to taste.

You could also add 1/2 cup raisins to this. Soak 'em first to soften, then drain, and add in with the liquid ingredients.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
I sometimes dress this cake up by taking a paper doily and dust the top of the cake with powdered sugar, then remove the doily to get a nice lacy design. My guys don't care, as long as the cake tastes great.

This particular version of the recipe came from a posting on the old McDougall recipe board which compiled all of Jan's quickbread recipes into one place. I don't know of many McDougallers who could have survived without Jan's recipes!

And now Isa is working on a new cookbook containing lower fat vegan recipes! Yippee! I'm sad I couldn't be a tester - I didn't volunteer because a lot of the more exotic ingredients in her other books are unavailable to me, like tamarind paste and even plain old tempeh - so I knew I would be a bad tester. I'm so jealous of those who made the cut.

Better go get ready for the doc - 8am appointment and I have to be there early to fill out all the new-patient paperwork. Wish me luck!